Game Review: Cube
A new first-person shooter was just released to the App Store today. The game, titled “Cube”, is in the Doom mold and plays fairly well. And best of all, it’s free!
You play the game by tilting the device left and right to turn and pressing on the lower right part of the screen to move forward. You fire by pressing on the bottom left of the screen and jump by pressing on the upper right. The controls take a little getting used to, but after a few minutes I was zipping around the map pretty easily. Thankfully the aiming mechanic is pretty forgiving. When an enemy popped into view and I quickly mashed the fire “button” they seemed to drop easily. If the aiming had to be more precise it would have made for a very frustrating experience, so kudos to the developer for easing up on it.
There’s nice variety in the game, too. You start with all of the weapons already available to you, which include a shotgun, rifle, some type of automatic machinegun-type thing and what appears to be a rocket launcher. There are also a ton of maps available to play which mixes things up nicely.
The graphics are pretty good overall, though frame rates do take a hit whenever enemies appear. Also, some of the maps (like the single-player Ruins map) are pretty dark which can make it tough to spot enemies.
The sound is pretty impressive, too. There’s an energetic heavy metal track to the game and the weapons explode with satisfying force. A few times I did notice a bit of static and clipping when enemies would attack, though. Aside from that one nitpick the audio is probably one of the game’s strongest points.
While there may be a few glitches here and there, Cube is overall a pretty satisfying FPS. The developer has noted on their website that they’re working hard to get an update to Apple to fix some known bugs. I think it controls better than Billy Frontier’s on-rails shooter mini game and is probably a glimpse into the future of the genre for the iPhone/iPod Touch. And the price is certainly right… can’t beat free!
Name: Cube
Developer: fernLightning
Price: FREE
CameraBag on Sale
For those of you who are disappointed with the camera on the iPhone (and there are quite a few of you out there) the nifty app CameraBag can help make your blah photos a little more exciting. Basically, it’s a series of filters to apply to your photos (both those you’re about to take and those you already have on your device) to make them appear as if they were taken from different old-school cameras.
The app is usually $4.99, but it’s now on sale for $2.99. It’s gotten good reviews on iTunes (average rating of 4 stars out of 457 reviews as of this writing), so if you were looking to spice up your iPhone photos now might be a good time to grab this app.
App Info:
Name: CamerBag
Developer: NeverCenter Ltd. Co.
Category: Photography
Price: $2.99 (usually $4.99)
Weekly Summary- 11/15/08
Back by popular demand, the weekly summary of the App Store stats will once again make an appearance every Saturday. Thanks to all of the people who had sent in requests for the weekly stats post to continue.
See the stats and analysis after the jump
Read more
Remote App Update
The popular iPhone App “Remote” was updated today. The new version (1.1.1) includes:
-Improved connection reliability to iTunes and AppleTV
-Addresses issues with AppleTV On-The-Go Playlists
-Artwork now displays correctly in Now Playing from AppleTV
If you haven’t downloaded the app yet you really need to. It does a great job of controlling your iTunes library through your iPhone/iPod touch via wi-fi, so you can control it no matter where you are in the house. And best of all- it’s free!
FAB APP ALERT- Touch Hockey: FS5
A new air hockey game was recently released on the App Store: Touch Hockey by Flip Side 5. The game controls well, including giving players the ability to trap the puck under their mallet in order to reposition it on the table. The graphics, while simple, are crisp and framerates are very smooth. The sound effects also work well.
The settings menu is a bit limited. There isn’t any option to change the colors of the mallets or pucks, nor is there an option to control the random replays that appear every now and then after goals are scored. The replays are easy to skip, however, with a single tap of the screen taking you back to the action. It just would be nice to have a way to turn it off (or on after every score) according to each user’s preference. These minor nitpicks are certainly items that can be addressed in a future update, though, and don’t really detract from the overall fun this game provides.
And the best part of Touch Hockey? It’s free. Sure, the game displays ads after 5 minutes of playing, but it keeps the app free. And when this free app rivals those that cost $2 or $3, I’m ok with a few ads here and there in order to get a quick air hockey fix.
App Info:
Name: Touch Hockey
Developer: Flipside 5
Category: Games
Price: Free
Hudson Games Free for a Limited Time
From now through October 12th you can pick up any of Hudson’s apps in the App Store for free. Read on to find out what the titles are and if it’s even worth it.
Weekly Summary- 10/04/08
After five straight weeks of new apps, Weather seems to have lost its momentum as not a single new app was added to the category over the past week. Other than that, though, it was business as usual at the App Store. It’s now been six straight weeks with at least 300 new apps and five straight weeks of 350 or more.
See the stats after the jump
iPhone Developer NDA is No More
Apple has officially dropped it’s non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released apps. The NDA will still be in place for unreleased software and features, though. Apple was catching a lot of heat from developers because of the NDA, so this should help increase the number of people willing to develop apps and, thus, increase the numbers of apps in general. Definitely a good thing!
Read Apple’s Official Announcement After The Jump
iGolf Just Got Better
Over the weekend iGolf received an update. This wasn’t just your normal “bug fix” update, either. Nope, this was a game changer (literally).
The game went from being a fairly cool (though limited) virtual driving range to a 3-hole golf course. The controls are a little wonky in spots (especially while putting), but the graphics and sound effects are very good. And the price is right- it’s free!
Weekly Summary- 9/27/08
It took two and a half months, but the App Store finally has its first 1,000+ app category: Games. Checking in at a total of 1,023 the Games category has been by far the most popular, steadily adding around 100 new apps each week. The App Store itself cracked 4,000 total apps- quite a few more than the 500 it debuted with back in the middle of July. Also of note is that Weather added 5 new apps this week- the biggest weekly increase that category has seen to date.
See the stats after the jump